Definition of: wheel

(hwēl) noun
1. A circular rim and hub connected by spokes or rays in one structure, or a disk, capable of rotating on a central axis and used to reduce friction and facilitate movement or transportation, as in vehicles, or to act with a rotary motion, as in machines.
2. Anything resembling or suggestive of a wheel; a disk or a circle, or any circular object or formation.
3. An instrument or device having a wheel or wheels as its distinctive characteristic, as a bicycle, a steering wheel or steering gear, or the like.
4. An old instrument of torture or execution, consisting of a wheel to which the limbs of the victim were tied and then broken with an iron bar; also, the death so inflicted.
5. The wheel with which the goddess of fortune is represented, symbolizing the vicissitudes and uncertainty of human fate.
6. A turning; revolution; rotation.
7. Figuratively, that which imparts or directs motion or controls activity; the moving force: the wheels of democracy.
8. A turning of a body of troops or a swinging of a line of ships in which a change of direction is accomplished while the different units keep in alinement.
9. A rotating firework; a pinwheel or catherine wheel.
10. A refrain of a song.
11. The rotating disk used in various gambling games, especially roulette; hence, roulette.
—Pelton wheel A device consisting of a wheel which carries on it a succession of cupshaped buckets, and is made to rotate by the impingement of high-pressure jets of water on the buckets, the form of which is such as to prevent the accumulation of dead water.
—wheels within wheels An intricate series of motives or influences, acting and reacting on one another.
—v.t.
1. To move or convey on wheels.
2. To cause to turn on or as on an axis; pivot or revolve.
3. To perform with a circular movement.
4. To provide with a wheel or wheels.
—v.i.
5. To turn on or as on an axis; pivot; rotate or revolve.
6. To take a new direction or course of action; change attitudes, opinions, etc.: often with about.
7. To move in a circular or spiral course.
8. To roll or move on wheels.
—to wheel and deal Slang To act freely, aggressively, and often unscrupulously, as in the arrangement of a business or political deal.
—adjective
1. Pertaining to or shaped like a wheel.
2. Harnessed to a vehicle directly in front of the wheels: said of a draft animal when there is a leader or leaders in front. ♦ Homophone: wheal. [OE hwēol]